My daughter is a newly minted RN working in critical care in Florida. She is overwhelmed by the number of patients she is handling. The law says they are limited to three patients per nurse, but she is hearing that a nearby hospital is handling four per nurse...no choice. They are talking about opening another area for these cases but do not have enough qualified to staff them. The nurses are BURNED OUT and OVERWHELMED. Many have left or are considering leaving the field. Protesters are out in front of her hospital screaming and carrying signs that read, “Hospitals are KILLING PEOPLE!” Yeah, that helps morale.
She tells me that the patients ARE coming in much younger this time. You don’t know me. You can disbelieve me (many will), but we’ve all had COVID (including her) and won’t get the vaxx. Whatever this thing is, it is very real. I believe the blame should be at the local clinic level where they refuse to treat the illness with anything, instead sending folks home to “deal with it” on their own. Then they show up in Emergency Rooms and from there ICU/CCU units. It is too late to treat for COVID (or anything else) at that point. They are just trying to keep them alive.
Are the ones coming in vaccinated or not? Both, I hear. I am not hearing about folks coming in who already survived it. Most have underlying conditions. It is what it is. And it isn’t COVID killing them in the CCU. At that point, it is organ failure...mainly lungs (damaged from being on ventilators, but no choice if you can’t breathe).
That’s my take on it based upon a family member dealing with it now. Believe what you want. But attacking the remaining healthcare workers seems to be a very foolish reaction to me.
Most times the lungs are already looking like Hurricane Ida, before we put them on Vents. The damage that virus can do to some is horrific. If they don’t go on vents, mortality is 100 percent, we’ve shaved 20 percent of that off and sometimes better if the patient can go onto ecmo...even then it’s often a lung transplant for a lucky few. I’m thankful most people( 98.3 percent) who get the disease will get over it.
What ever would we do if covid were a straight 33 percent mortality disease with 50 percent of the population expected to get some form of the disease during a regional epidemic, like small pox used to be?